Vulnerability vs. resilience
Sorour Darabi’s story stretches back to Shiraz in Iran, but they have lived in Paris since 2013 and work in transdisciplinary art, choreography, and dance. They They are transgender artists.1 They are deeply engaged in the concept of trance as a constant state of change, as well as the roots of Persian dance, investigating the potential of traditional forms to open up a space for modern societal issues. They represent a generation of choreographers who bring new perspectives to cultural dialogue. Their work attracts attention through its bravery and relevance in today’s complex cultural landscape, making it an important subject for research into identity in dance.
They were very active in Iran before moving to France. They were a member of the underground collective ICCD, its festival, Untimely (Tehran), staged some of their work. Although they maintain that they are a self-taught dancer, in 2013 they began studying the Ex.e.r.ce Master’s course at ICI-CNN in Montpellier, graduating in 2015. As part of this, they created their solo performance Subject to Change, which asks questions relating to transformation over time from the perspective of co-existence with the surrounding environment. As part of the Montepellier Danse festival in 2016, they created their dance solo piece Farci.e, which tackles the concepts of language, gender identity, and sexuality. Their next piece, Savušun, premiering in 2018, is an homage to emotion, vulnerability, and people with additional needs, a “solo of collective sadness”.
In 2024, they premiered Mille et Une Nuits at the same festival, the first contemporary opera for eight performers, in which the artists working around Darabi return to Scheherazade’s concept of “the night”: “Through the power of words and narration, Scheherazade averts death, opening up a path towards new possibilities. This gesture of resistance through storytelling seems to me to be a powerful metaphor for how queer and trans bodies might rewrite their own story. This piece is an exploration of liminal spaces, where mythology, body, and poetry intersect to create a space for affirmation and transformation. From Scheherazade‘s perspective, the essence of the night is transformation, emancipation, and survival. Night is traditionally seen as a moment of darkness and danger, but here it is transformed into a place of creativity and change in the positive sense of the word.” (Le Personnic 2024)
They are currently working on their second contemporary opera MAJNÛN نونجم (music by Pablo Altar), a project for ten performers that reimagines the concept of “madness” in the context of medieval Persian poetry and literature. Its premiere is planned for 2026. The MAJNÛN project explores how the concepts of desire, togetherness, human experience, and others intersect with our modern understanding of mental and emotional states. By delving into these issues in MAJNÛN, Darabi attempts to uncover the complex relationships between madness, homoeroticism, and mystic practice, such as Sufism. The aim is to open up a dialogue between the past and the present, with an emphasis on the enduring relevance of these themes in today’s society and in the society of the future.